Michael (Pinball) Clemons

Pinball Clemons is undeniably one of the most exciting players in the history of the CFL. When you think of Clemons, you might think of his kick return prowness and that is understandable as Clemons was one of the best at returning kicks the CFL has seen. It also might be unfortunate, as it might cause you to overlook his accomplishments as a running back and receiver. It might account for why Clemons was overlooked for the first two years of his eligibility for entrance to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Was Clemons a running back or a receiver? The answer is that he was both, depending on what the Argos needed most at the time, and through it all he also returned kicks. When you look at Clemon's career and statistics, you need to use a different measuring stick that you would with more one dimensional players. Clemons played his entire twelve year career from 1989 to 2000 with the Toronto Argonauts. Clemons joined the Argos in 1989, and worked mainly as a kick returner in his rookie season. In 1989, Clemons had just 28 carries for 134 yards and one pass reception, but returned 13 kickoffs for 356 yards and 50 punts for 507 yards including one for a touchdown. Over his career, Clemons would return 8 punts for touchdowns. In 1990, Toronto discovered the wisdom of using Clemons on offense and not just special teams as he ran for 509 yards and caught 72 passes for 905 yards. Add 831 yards on punt returns and 1045 yards on punt returns and you have 3290 yards of total yardage. Those numbers produced an Outstanding Player award for Clemons and an All-Canadian honour. The latter though, was for special teams as Clemon's dual rushing and receiving role seemed to confuse voters and prevent his selection at a regular position. In his career, Clemons ended up with four East All-Star honours (1990, 1993, 1994 and 1997) and won All-Canadian honours in two of those years (1990 and 1997), but all of these were for special teams. Clemons is sometimes criticicized as not being a great running back, but he finished his career with 5341 career rushing yards. There were no 1000 yard rushing seasons, but when Toronto needed Clemons to be their #1 running back, he did that. In 1994, Clemons ran 149 times for 787 yards and in 1995 he carried 181 times for a career high 836 yards. In the two seasons that followed, Toronto needed a receiver so his rushing totals dropped to 286 and 315 yards, but he caught 116 passes for 1268 yards in 1996 and 122 catches for 1086 yards in 1997. Incredibly enough, a neither of those 100+ reception seasons generated an All-Star award for Clemons at running back or slotback. His 1997 All-Canadian award was once more for special teams, though with over 1000 yards in both punt and kickoff returns, he was certainly deserving of that. Clemons is certainly the best all purpose back the CFL has ever seen, racking up 5341 yards rushing, 682 catches for 7015 yards receiving, 6025 yards returning punts and 6349 yards on kickoff returns. Both Clemons' rushing and receiving statistics are better than many current Hall of Famers, and that is not counting his kick return numbers or the sheer excitment that Pinball brought to the CFL.